Like many Jewish people, Gayle Donsky learned at an early age about the horrors of the Holocaust. So, after hearing about the genocide in Darfur during a Jewish Community Relations Council meeting in 2003, the Mill Valley resident knew she had to do her part to stop it.

From then on, she became an avid activist of the anti-genocide movement in Darfur, helping organize events across the Bay Area and in New York. For her advocacy work, she was awarded the JCRC’s Tom Lantos Memorial Humanitarian Award in 2008.

The 72-year-old retired social worker and therapist’s struggles over the years to understand how genocides happen and how they can be prevented, led her to produce “Faces of Genocide,” a recent short documentary telling the stories of survivors from genocides in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Courtesy of Gayle Donsky

Sudanese torture survivor Mohamed I. Elgadi tells his story in “Faces of Genocide,” a short documentary produced by Mill Valley’s Gayle Donsky.

Q What made you want to be a social worker?

A When I was a kid, there was a woman who was the mother of one of my best friends. I thought her mother was really cool and a wonderful person and I thought she was a social worker. That’s where it got in my mind. She wasn’t a social worker. She worked in some social agencies. I was always somebody who thought I needed to help people. My father was a very big philanthropist in Houston in terms of supporting different causes, and I’m sure that impacted me.

Q What ignited your love of social justice issues?

A I was always interested in social justice issues, so it came out working in adoptions and within pediatrics. When I started going into my private psychotherapy practice, I decided to do a newsletter for pediatricians and family practitioners for 18 years. I picked issues that I felt were important for clinical practices to know. For example, what are the signs of sexual abuse that a clinician should be aware of? Is spanking a good idea? What are the best methods for approaching developmental issues?

Q How did you get involved in the anti-genocide movement?

A I was part of what’s called the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco and they do a lot of social justice work. At one of our meetings in Marin, one of the people on the council, her name is Gerri Miller, stood up and held an issue of the J. [the Jewish News of Northern California], and the cover was about the genocide that was going on in Darfur. She said, “How can we as Jews not do anything about this?” Gerri had heard about a group in Petaluma called Dear Sudan, Love Petaluma and she wanted to do a Dear Sudan, Love Marin. That’s how I got involved, and it just grew from there.

A Absolutely. Being Jewish and being from a young age aware of the Holocaust, and my husband’s mother was an immigrant from Poland right before World War II. Her brother got her out of Poland. She lost two of her older sisters, so definitely, my awareness of the Holocaust is very potent for me.

Q What’s the hardest part of the movement?

A The main frustrating thing to me is that most perpetrators of genocide are not held accountable. There are so many flaws within the United Nations and the International Court (of Justice). The main problem is the countries that are on the U.N. Security Council, some get the final say. Crimes are continuing to be perpetrated and the international criminal courts cannot do their jobs.